On October 3, 2002, National Airlines will begin new service at Reno/Tahoe International Airport with four daily nonstop roundtrips from Las Vegas.

They are offering the new service with special fares starting as low as $41* each way with the purchase of a roundtrip between Reno and Las Vegas. Other introductory specials are as low as $128* each way with the purchase of a roundtrip ticket between Reno and any East Coast city served by National.

Since I'll be in Reno in less than 2 weeks, you got my attention! Hmmmm....it sounds like National is trying to match Southwest's prices. It might work out well for someone that wants options such as first class seating, but I'll stick with Southwest and get my free trip with every 4 round trip flights.

Daisy,
For us east coasters, it's a real break if you don't have southwest flying anywhere near you! Average RT out of here is usually over $600. I checked a rt on national and it came up $268! Not to shabby!

Good point, Lee ...I'm for anything that increases "options." Someday (when I have some spare time) I'll have to look more closely to check out the differences between National and Southwest routes out of Reno ....that's a fairly convenient airport for me during 8-9 months of the year. The trouble is that I'd have to go somewhere beside Las Vegas<vbg>.

Reno has always been cost prohibitive when I've wanted to go. I only wish National flew out of a city closer to me than Dallas.

This June will mark our second trip to Reno. Both times I've had to book airfare through Priceline to get a decent rate.

Doug,
I know you've used Priceline before, but have you ever tried HotWire? The guidelines for prices seem to be a bit better. I've never done either of these two ways to by cheaper tickets. But for my November trip I have a little leway and might try it.

We used Hotwire before. Actuall on a trip to Vegas from Wichita. Total price was $202, which is about the lowest it gets with sales. We used Hotwire because no one was having a sale that cheap.

Flight times were leaving Wichita at 7AM and leaving Vegas at 7AM. Everytime we've used either Priceline of Hotwire for Vegas, departures from Vegas have been 7AM.

I usually check Hotwire first, then place a bid on Priceline lower than the Hotwire quote. To date, there's only been one time that Priceline hasn't beat Hotwire.

Beware you won't always get a good deal on either site. Hotwire is often as high as, or even higher than what I can book without it. Sometimes Priceline rejects my bid and comes back with an offer price as high, or higher, than what I can book it without using them.